Gold is like a magnet, once you have found it you want more. This is the place to tell us what you want to do or just discuss any issues you feel it appropriate. We provide the answers to your questions on gold detecting and prospecting.

Back in the day when the SD2200 was the new kid on the block, I was hammering a little bald hill in the middle of nowhere that had a shaft in the crown like a mini volcano. This shaft went down to the water table and the old timers didn't do this for no reason!I had been picking up gold on all sides of the hill with the biggest bit being just on 20 grams so you can imagine that I was gridding this hill pretty seriously. The shaft had been sunk on the intersection of a 4" line of quartz and a 1/4" line of ironstone and this had produced the reef gold for the old timers and the alluvial for me.

So to the first tale, I was working up the quartz reef when I had a very nice signal over a small pile of iron stone about 5m from the shaft, as you do I kicked the rocks out of the way and waved the coil over the ground, the target had disappeared!On checking the "rocks" I found they all gave a very nice signal with the SD and after cracking one open found a very nice 1mm seam of gold running through the ironstone rock. All the remaining rocks had the same seam in them!These dollied up to just under an ounce and I still wonder today what made someone dig these up from way underground only to leave them in a little pile on the surface?

Onto the second tale, parallel to the quartz reef ran another line of quartz about a 1/4" wide. This ran right over the hill and while detecting along it the SD again gave a very nice signal. The signal was level with the shaft so it was obvious that this was a second intersection with the line of iron stone. Out came the pick and the top soil was quickly removed down to clay slate about a foot down with the target was still in the hole.After a rest and drink I attacked the clay slate and slowly dug deeper looking for this allusive target which still rang solid in my headphones. This continued for the next hour broken up by drink rests and lots of swearing as this had become hard work, all the while with the SD saying the target was still in the hole.

After digging a foot into the clay slate the target vanished! I sat back with my feet in a small crater and tried to get to grips with this and put the SD down. To my surprise the machine lit up with a target in the rock that I had removed and while trying to find the target I discovered that all of the rock from the hole was setting the SD screaming in my ears.The next 4 hours was spent picking bits of gold out of the spoil to a total of just under 3 ounces.It appears that I had detected a gold indicator at the intersection of the two reefs and dug right through it looking for the target. All the gold was very sharp with bits of quartz and iron stone attached

The next week I returned and dry panned all the dirt from the hole, gaining another 1/2 ounce of fines.

The next time you are in Coiltek in Maryborough have a look through their gold photo album, you will find a picture of about a hundred small pieces arranged around the Coiltek logo on a coil, they are the bits that came out of the hole.